Indian Ferry Disaster

A ferry with some 250 passengers on board has sunk in a river in
the Indian state of Assam (AFP Graphic)

GUWAHATI, India: Hopes dimmed on Tuesday of finding more survivors after
an overcrowded ferry split in two and sank in northeast India, leaving
more than 100 dead and around 100 missing.

Police said 105 bodies, including women and children, had been recovered
so far from the fast-flowing waters of the Brahmaputra river in Assam
state, where the ferry sank in a sudden storm late Monday afternoon.

Despite an operating capacity of 225, some 350 people were believed to
be on the two deck boat when it broke up mid-river in torrential,
pre-monsoon rains.

Police said some 150 were rescued or swam to safety. The ferry carried
no lifeboats or lifebelts and the chances of picking up more survivors
after a night in the water were remote.

From Times of India:

Deputy commissioner Kumud Chandra Kalita said about 25 people swam to
safety after the double-decked ferry with over 300 people onboard was
crossing the river from Dhubrighat when it capsized in the storm at
4.20pm.

The GCP event was set for six hours beginning at 4:20 pm (10:50 UTC) to
include the early evening when the news of the disaster and rescue
efforts spread.
The result is Chisquare 21498.436 on 21600 df, for p = 0.687
and Z = -0.486.

It is important to keep in mind that we have only a tiny
statistical effect, so that it is always hard to distinguish
signal from noise. This means that every "success" might be
largely driven by chance, and every "null" might include a real
signal overwhelmed by noise. In the long run, a real effect can
be identified only by patiently accumulating replications of
similar analyses.